title: Education predicts incidence of preclinical mobility disability in initially high-functioning older women. The Women's Health and Aging Study II.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To examine the impact of educational attainment on the incidence of preclinical mobility disability (PCD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The Women's Health and Aging II Study is a prospective observational cohort study of 436 initially high-functioning community-dwelling women aged 70-79 years at baseline in Baltimore, Maryland. We measured the association of highest attained education level with preclinical mobility disability (PCD) over an 11-year period. PCD is defined as self-reported modification in any of four tasks without reporting difficulty in those tasks. The tasks were walking ½ mile, climbing up steps, doing heavy housework, and getting in/out of bed or chair.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with less than 9 years of education were more likely to acquire incident PCD (hazard ratio: 3.1, 95% confidence interval = 1.2-7.7) than their counterparts with more education after adjusting for income, marital status, number of diseases, and high self-efficacy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower education level is an independent predictor of incident preclinical mobility disability. This association has important implications for primary and secondary prevention and can be easily assessed in clinical encounters.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Gregory
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Szanton
authors.forename: Qian-Li
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Roland J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Thorpe
authors.forename: Linda P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Fried
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors